Global Courant
A sick elephant that Thailand presented to Sri Lanka more than 20 years ago returned to its native country for medical treatment on Sunday following allegations that the animal had been severely mistreated while living in a Buddhist temple.
The male elephant, known in Sri Lanka as Muthu Raja, or Pearly King, and as Sak Surin, or Mighty Surin, in Thailand, was flown directly from the capital of the South Asian island to Chiang Mai province in northern Thailand on a Russian Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane.
A six-person team, including two veterinarians and four mahouts, or professional elephant trainers, accompanied the elephant during the flight, which lasted about six hours.
A special container was built to contain the 9-meter-tall, 4-tonne pachyderm. Several mahouts went to Sri Lanka beforehand to accustom the animal to cages so that it wouldn’t panic during the journey to Thailand.
Video footage of his arrival in Chiang Mai showed the elephant was conscious and appeared calm.
Thai Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa was at the airport and said the elephant landed in perfect condition. He previously said Thailand spent at least $540,000 on the animal’s repatriation.
The pachyderm was heard trumpeting from the container that was loaded onto a truck’s flatbed trailer to transport him to the government’s Thai Elephant Conservation Center in nearby Lampang province, where he will be quarantined for at least 30 days and will stay for rehabilitation.
The elephant was sent to Sri Lanka in 2001, when it was about 10 years old, as a gift from the Thai royal family. He was one of three elephants donated by Thailand to the Sri Lankan government for training as a bearer of religious relics. Mathu Raja was placed under the care of a Buddhist temple.
A Sri Lanka-based animal rights group, the Rally for Animal Rights and Environment group, claimed in 2020 that the animal was in poor health due to years of forced labor and abuse, and in need of urgent medical care. The group started a petition calling for it to be saved and later called for the elephant to be returned to Thailand after the Sri Lankan government reportedly ignored the activists’ complaints.
The Thai Foreign Ministry released a statement in November 2022 saying that a preliminary investigation had been conducted by the Thai Embassy in Sri Lanka and concluded that the elephant was “not in good health and in poor living conditions”. The statement said Thailand would seek Sri Lanka’s approval to return the elephant for treatment.
The elephant was reported to be underweight, with rough skin and abscesses on both hips, thinning pads and a stiff left front leg, which made it difficult for it to walk and stand.
He was transferred from the Buddhist temple to the National Zoological Garden of Sri Lanka for preliminary treatment and appeared healthier before his flight to Thailand.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told MPs last month that during a visit to Thailand in May, he expressed regret to his Thai counterpart over what happened to the elephant.
Thai officials have said the main purpose of returning the animal was for medical care and whether he will return to Sri Lanka remains a matter to be discussed with the Colombo government.
At a press conference in Bangkok last month, Thailand’s Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa said authorities would begin investigating the health of other Thai elephants abroad. He said the export of Thai elephants had already been banned for conservation reasons.
